Page 3 of Her Wicked Hero

“Sure would be nice,” Wyatt said.

Nobody responded.

“I want to go over that again,” Dex said raising his head. “There are some things that are definitely off when I go over the records of the men who were supposedly on the armory.”

“What do you mean?” Gray asked.

“Lieutenant, I already sent this stuff to Langley. It started with the Australian, Seymore Gates. When I dug into his record, everything looked perfect. That is until I cross-referenced it to his social media presence, then I found out he’s currently on his honeymoon.”

“Shit,” Griffin Porter said. “If one of these guys is sideways, they all could be.”

“Exactly,” Dex said grimly. “I just caught this ten minutes ago. I’m pissed I wasn’t checking them on social media back on the aircraft carrier, that was pure fucking stupidity on my part.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Gray said. “Shit, Dex, Langley and the NSA are going to fire some of their people over this. They were in charge of vetting the people tasked to protect the former head of the National Security Agency. Chances are, you’re going to get recruited… again!”

“No more boots for you, Dex,” Dalton laughed, “nothing but spit-shined shoes. You’ll love it in Virginia.”

Gray turned to his team members and glared. “You’re all stuck on this team until I personally kick you the hell off, are we clear?”

“Aye aye, Lieutenant,” Aiden O’Malley said, smothering a grin. Zed liked Gray’s second in command. He was a take no prisoners type of guy.

Gray slowly turned to look at Zed, his eyes narrowed. “That includes you Zaragoza for the time being. You’re stuck too.” He focused his attention back on Dex. “How many more of these guys do you think are bogus?” Gray asked as he waved to Dex’s computer.

“Hold on.” Dex’s fingers were flying over the keyboard. “I’m checking on the commander of the boat.”

Zed peered over his shoulder and saw screen after screen pop up. He didn’t know how Dex could possibly be comprehending any of the information being shown.

“Come on, come on baby, come to Papa,” Dex muttered.

Suddenly an American Express statement came up, and Dex kept it up on screen for almost thirty seconds, then he popped over to the Kentucky DMV and found a picture that matched the name on the Amex bill. After that, he pulled up one from Walter Lowell’s Army file with him wearing his green beret. He was retired Special Forces, and according to his American Express bill, he’d just been to Disneyland two days ago.

Dex turned to look at Gray and the rest of the team. “If he’s a fraud and the Aussie was a fraud, my guess is every last one of them was.”

“Then who are we dealing with?” Wyatt asked.

“Mercenaries. Some very smart and competent mercs. Did you see where any fingerprints or photos were taken of these clowns when they were hired?” Griff asked.

“What do you think?” Dex gave a look of disgust.

“Hey, a guy can hope,” Griff said.

“So, we’re dealing with eleven, soon to be nine mercenaries who we can’t identify,” Griff said.

Zed, Hunter, and Aiden shared a look.

Gray caught it and grimaced, but Zed noted he didn’t shut them down. They needed to know what they were up against, and one of those two men on the boat were going to provide that information, come hell or high water.

2

“You need to sleep,” Harold said in a barely there whisper. He eased himself down beside her, so they were sitting against the wall of the hut, staring at the locked door.

Marcia looked at the man she had come to love almost as much as she had her own dad. “I just can’t, Mr. B.”

“Lesley, you need to call me Dad at all times.”

It was freaky hearing him call her Lesley. It was almost like it was bad luck or something, that they were wishing Lesley harm.

“You’re thinking too hard about this. Would it be easier if I just called you Honey?”